Monday, November 22, 2010

I've only got a quick moment to write, but I just wanted to cover two quick points...

1) On November 20, the 2010 Junior Eurovision Song Contest was held in Minsk, Belarus. I mentioned the JESC briefly in the past, but for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, it's a smaller-scale contest for performers under the age of 16 (the minimum age to compete in the full Eurovision). This year, 14 songs were submitted, mostly from Eastern Europe. Despite all indications that Georgia's Mariam Kakhelishvili would with with her Lady Gaga-inspired "Mari Dari"(which, in my opinion, toes the line between cute and terrifying), the eventual winner was Armenia's Vladimir Arzumanyan with "Mama", beating Russia's "Boy and Girl" by a single point. Here's the winning performance:

This is Armenia's first victory in any of the EBU-sanctioned competitions (the ESC, JESC, or Eurovision Dance Contest), and while I was personally rooting for Belgium, Lithuania, or Sweden, I can't deny that 12-year-old Vladimir really worked it out on stage, and while many might grumble about political votes or diaspora support, I do think that the little guy from Stepanakert earned his victory.

2) On the more solemn side of things, however, I'm saddened to report the passing of Ladislav "Laci" Demeterffy, better known to the ESC world as "75 Cents". In 2008, he performed alongside Croatian representatives Kraljevi Ulice with their song "Romanca". The elderly Laci (who picked his pseudonym as a reference to his age at the time) waxed poetic, flirted, and even did a bit of scratching on an old gramophone while on stage, and he holds the record for the oldest Eurovision contestant ever. He passed away peacefully on November 19th in Zagreb at the age of 77. This was one of my favorite performances of that year, due in no small part to Laci's contribution. May he rest in peace, and may his loved ones be comforted by the fact that he made so many people happy with his most famous performance (seen below).